Context

Agriculture is a significant contributor to GHG Emissions in the EU, roughly responsible for 11% of GHG emissions. As well as contributing to climate change, agriculture is directly affected by shifts in climate and extreme weather events, causing droughts and floods2. Agriculture can also provide solutions for mitigating and adapting to climate change, through soil carbon sequestration and increasing resilience such as soil water storage capacity. The EU has recognized this potential of agriculture and laid out in the EU Farm to Fork Strategy (F2F) measures and targets that help to contribute to achieving the EU targets of climate neutrality of the land use, forestry and agricultural sector by 2035. It has also identified the need to conserve and enhance natural carbon sinks such as soils and plants, forests, farmed lands and wetlands. The EU specifically aims to motivate farmers to adopt climate mitigation and adaption (CMA) practices by introducing a carbon farming business model built on public (e.g. CAP, eco-schemes) and private initiatives such as removal certificates. In order to enable the transition and achieve targets, the F2F strategy sees an important role in advisory services as well as improved data availability. Through initiatives like the Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN), the EU aims to collect data related to F2F and Biodiversity Strategy, helping not only advisory services but also contributing to improving policymaking. Organic farming has been identified as a relevant contributor to the above-mentioned targets by the EU, aiming to increase the total agricultural land under organic farming until 2030 by up to 25%. Indeed, organic farming has the potential to reduce and compensate for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) up to 60%.

Objectives

The overall objective of this project is to build a pilot network of climate organic farmers to adapt, test and implement carbon farming related activities, better understand the potential of reaching EU targets when combining carbon and organic farming and inspiring other actors to establish networks on carbon organic farming.

Activities

The project structure is clustered in five workstreams (WS) and organized along three reporting periods. Each WS consists of three WPs. WS1 will focus on the farm-network establishment (WP1) and activities (WP1, 2, 3) as well as the long-term sustainability of the network (WP3). The WS2 will work on the implementation of carbon farming in the network, preparing tools, methods and farming practices (WP4) for farmers development of a farm carbon balance and strategy (WP5). The results of the two developments will be gathered at project level (WP6), providing two reports. The WS3 will set up the knowledge repository (WP7) build the OFK platform, mainly adapting and translating relevant KM, using existing KM and complementing it with additional information from WP4 (WP7-9). Additionally, a DS-Toolbox will be developed, based on the results from WP4-8 (WP9). The WS4 will focus on policy dissemination and exploitation, analyzing relevant policies (WP10), and engaging policymakers in policy dialogues (WP11, 12) using inputs from WP4-6. WS5 works mainly on general DEC-role, establishing communication channels and strategy (WP13) and maximizing impact across audiences through communication activities, campaigns and events (WP13, 14, 15). WS6 will work on general management and collaboration, including liaisons to other EU-projects (WP16, 17, 18).